u/Quiet_Evening6046

My Story So Far. The past 10 weeks of life. 20 hours of 360 surgery June 1&3 in El Paso, TX with Dr. Cleveland III 2 blood transfusions 11 days in the Hospitals of Providence and the rest of a month in the Advanced Care Hospital (Ltach) in Las Cruces, NM. Released finally on July 3rd. Still waiting for my back to close up and on a second round of antibiotics. Wish me luck. Going in for a CT scan to check for infection and if I need another surgery to clean it out. This is the ugly parts. But just as others have shared their encouraging stories of months down the road when it all gets better, I promise to do the same so those at the beginning of their journey sees there’s hope. We all got this. Big hugs ❤️‍🩹🫶🏼

Has anyone else noticed since your surgery that your social circle pretty much disappeared? Oddly enough this bothered me at first. But now I’m finding the fact that if they weren’t solid in the first place, their silence is welcome. I quit a lot of bad habits and quit going out dancing for sure with my friends on the weekends to give this fusion the best chance to heal up right… and haven’t heard from any of them since. It was sad and isolating at first. But now I’m kinda liking the clarity and distance. Am I the odd one out or has anyone else experienced this shift as well? 9 weeks out from a T6-pelvis 360 surgery. And still a bit of a road to recovery ahead. Gonna need some new hobbies and with that I suppose comes a new group of friends.

20 hours of surgery. 2 blood transfusions and a month in the hospital. These pics taken at day 11 after wound vac came out. Fused T6-pelvis and cages in my lumbar area. Thought I would be free of restrictions at 6 weeks. Still mostly on bed rest. Still no driving. Just started to be able to sit for 10-15 minutes. Lost 10 pounds the past month and counting . Suffered from ileus for 22 days so bad that I took myself of meds 2 weeks ago. Still using a rollator. Anyone get sidelined with post-op depression? I feel stuck in a body that doesn’t work with the way I want it to right now. Triple digit heat got me trapped inside the house feeling like I will never progress at this rate. When does the feeling of despair end? How long till you were walking on your own, driving and bending again? I had no idea it was gonna be this hard